A cell is the smallest unit of life. Inside a thin membrane, a nucleus holds the instructions and the organelles do the work: converting energy, building and breaking down, making repairs. The membrane is not a wall. It is a boundary that stays open, controlling what passes in and what passes out.

What makes a cell a self is its membrane, and the membrane only works by staying open. Seal it completely and the cell dies. The exchange across the edge is what keeps it alive. A cell is also both a whole and a part: complete on its own, but still one unit of a larger body. The same is true of a team, a department, or a community. Each has to stay distinct without sealing itself off.

Where is the edge of what you call yourself, and what does it let through? Are you keeping something alive by exchange, or closing it off to protect it? What sits at your center, holding the instructions everything else follows? Are you a complete thing, or one cell in a larger body, or both? What keeps you intact while your attention is on the boundary?

See Also: DNA, Iceberg, Tidepools, Filters, Regulation, Growth.

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